Recently, the weather has been brutal across the midwest: several feet of snow, single digit temperatures, and wind chills below zero. I try not to leave my home unless absolutely necessary, but after a few days indoors, I get cabin fever and I need to do something productive.

Last week, I decided to challenge my creativity. Since it was too cold to go outside, I had to shoot photos inside. I started with an idea to shoot some household items so I could work with lighting and a tilt-shift lens. It evolved into a project of triptychs, a set of three pictures in a theme.

Triptychs originated during the Middle Ages as a way to display paintings on the altars in Christian churches. The triptychs were hinged together and could be folded up for easy transportation.

When shooting my triptychs, I stripped everything down as simple as possible. I used one camera, one lens (my Lensbaby 2.0), one White Lightning X1600 monolight, one medium softbox, and a white seamless background. I also shot everything in black and white.

I chose themes that interested me or provided me the opportunity to make interesting images. Also, I rediscovered how difficult it is to photograph aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. No matter how hard it was to capture the image in my mind’s eye, I never abandoned a photo once I had started it. I felt that quitting was not an option since I was trying to challenge my skills.

Overall, I think I ended up with a nice collection of different images and themes. It was fun to break away from the commercial work and athletic events that I shoot on a regular basis.